The present invention relates to the creation and retrieval of audio information and more specifically relates to audio capture and retrieval over a network utilizing an audio user interface.
The amount of information available over communication networks is tremendous and growing at a fast rate. The most popular of such networks is the Internet, which is a network of linked computers around the world. Much of the popularity of the Internet may be attributed to the World Wide Web (WWW) portion of the Internet. The WWW is a part of the Internet in which information is typically passed between server computers and client computers using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A server stores information and serves (i.e. sends) the information to a client in response to a request from the client. The client executes computer software programs, often called browsers, which aid in the requesting and displaying of information. Examples of WWW browsers are Netscape(trademark) Navigator(trademark), available from Netscape Communications, Inc., and the Internet Explorer(trademark), available from Microsoft Corporation.
Servers, and the information stored therein, are identified through Uniform Resource Locators (URL). URL""s are described in detail in Berners-Lee, T., et al., Uniform Resource Locators, RFC 1738, Network Working Group, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference. For example, the URL http://www.hostname.com/document1.html, identifies the document xe2x80x9cdocument1.htmlxe2x80x9d at host server xe2x80x9cwww.hostname.comxe2x80x9d. Thus, a request for information from a host server by a client generally includes a URL. The information passed from a server to a client is generally called a document. Such documents are generally defined in terms of a document language, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Upon request from a client, a server sends an HTML document to the client. HTML documents contain information which is used by the browser to display information to a user at a computer display screen. An HTML document may contain text, logical structure commands, hypertext links, and user input commands. If the user selects (for example by a mouse click) a hypertext link from the display, the browser will request another document from a server.
A user may also access audio files through a browser. Conventional browsers typically include the capability to process and play audio files. Currently, the typical scenario for placing audio files on a server is that a web page creator (i.e., webmaster) would record a sound file on a computer (using microphone and sound card) and then place the file in the appropriate place on the server. Further, software has been written so that if a merchant (i.e., owner of content) has a computer and Internet access, he could record sound on his computer and upload it to the web server. However, many merchants do not have Internet access. These merchants therefore must work through a webmaster to make changes to the website. For businesses which require frequent updates to their websites, this can be a time consuming and expensive process.
A technical advance is achieved in the art by providing a method and system for updating announcements on a website. The method and system include receiving an announcement through an audio interface and storing the announcement on a website server. Merchants without Internet access can now update announcements on their websites quickly and economically by using an audio interface such as a conventional telephone. The updated announcements may be either audio or data. If the announcement is an audio announcement, it is converted from a first audio format into a second audio format prior to the step of storing the announcement. Whether the announcements are audio or data, the merchants"" customers can then retrieve them by accessing the merchants"" websites via the Internet.